Proycling's Analysis: It seems that, like buses, mountain stages come in threes this year. This is the easiest of the trio, but there’s a hellish test at the end. The Pandera is one of the stupidly hard climbs that the race organisers have deliberately sought out in recent years. During the final 7km there are numerous steep pitches and a whole kilometre at more than 12 per cent.

Culture Vulture: A key emirate in the Moorish empire, Granada’s renowned Alhambra palace and fortress rises high above the town.

Local hero: Jaén’s Javi Moreno will want to make an impact heading into his hometown. The 25-year-old rider finished 21st in his debut last year.

Vuelta Retro: This is the fourth visit to the Pandera. The three previous winners have all ended up with clouds of suspicion over their achievements – Roberto Heras, Alejandro Valverde and Kazakh Andrei Kashechkin in 2006.

Neil Stephens says: Alejandro Valverde has won here twice. Two times he has raced here, and both times he has won. Obviously it's suited to him. It's not just the climb to the finish that's difficult but all day, it's bloody hard. It's up and down all day - I don't know if the profile map shows it but in reality it's definitely up and down all day.